9 Proven Ways to Make Money from Your Skills
Have skills you haven’t yet figured out what to do with? Don’t worry because you’re going to discover several ways to make money from your skills.
It’s possible to turn your skills into a profitable side hustle both online and in person. All you need to do is to find the right buyer for what you’re skilled in.
How to Monetize Your Skills
If you’re ready to explore the details, let’s get started.
1. Create a blog
Blogging is great for sharing what you know with others online. It could be home décor, gardening, or any other skill. You just need to create blog content around a topic you know and monetize it. But, of course, there’s a bit more to it.
If you want to start a profitable blog, you need to determine whether people are searching for the topic you’ll be focusing on. After that, choose a suitable domain name plus hosting and install a website builder such as WordPress. You can then publish relevant and valuable posts to your new blog.
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t be quick to monetize your blog while starting out. Focus on optimizing the blog for search engines and promoting your posts online. This way, you get more traffic and it becomes easier to make money.
Related: How to Make 500 Dollars Fast
2. Become a contributing author on other blogs
Want to blog without starting a blog? Contributing articles to other sites is how you can make money from your skills.
This option requires you to be better at writing because you’ll be posting to other blogs. Most of them have editorial guidelines that contributors need to follow.
So, find a blog or website that covers your desired topic and accepts new contributors. It could be a blog you read every day. Also, searching something like “contribute articles + topic” on Google can help you find some sites.
Check their guidelines to find out whether writers get compensated. If that’s the case, apply to become one of their writers.
3. Offer a service
Is your skill in-demand online? Many of them, especially digital ones, are. Some digital skills are content writing, web design, and digital marketing.
Working as a freelancer is a good way to go when offering a service based on your expertise. Use freelance marketplaces, job boards, and social networking sites to find gigs.
As a beginner freelancer with no previous work, you can decide to go for one or two lower-paying jobs first to build your portfolio. This way, it becomes easier for high-paying clients to check out some of your work and hire you.
For every job you get, ensure you submit high-quality work. It becomes easier to get more gigs and recommendations. If you’re using a freelance site, you’ll get good ratings and reviews and more potential clients will trust you.
Related: 39 Ways to Make Extra Money
4. Make a YouTube channel
If you don’t mind making videos, YouTube is one of the best platforms to monetize them. You could upload video tutorials about what you’re skilled in so for anyone interested to watch.
The good thing is that it’s possible to build a YouTube audience on almost any topic. That’s because the platform has lots of users from all around the world.
You’ll need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within the last 12 months to join the YouTube Partner Program and earn from ads. But you’re free to monetize your YouTube videos in other ways while waiting to hit those milestones.
These include getting sponsored by brands and promoting your own or affiliate products and services. In fact, many YouTubers make more money from such monetization techniques than in ads.
5. Write an e-book
Writing an e-book is perfect for sharing your knowledge with people online. It works well if you don’t want to put everything in a blog post or something like that.
Unlike the case in physical books, you won’t have to do shipping. This means that anyone interested, regardless of their location, can find your e-book, purchase it, and get access instantly.
It’s only possible to get more readers when your content has lots of value to them. They’re likely to leave positive reviews which are essential for gaining the trust of other potential buyers.
But if the e-book only covers basic information and is overpriced, you’ll get little to no sales because of negative reviews. So, it helps if you invest time and even money in crafting an e-book that people will like.
Related: How to Make Money Writing
6. Create an online course
This is yet another way to teach people what you know and make money from your skills. Many people are willing to pay for an online course if it can fix what they’re struggling with.
You just need to do some market research and know which problems your target audience has. Go to relevant Facebook groups and start polls or create a survey and have your ideal student take it. You may also set up a landing page for your upcoming course and only start creating it when you have enough sign-ups.
One great platform for creating and selling online courses is Teachable. Many course creators and students from across the globe trust it. It’s a chance to share what you know even without tech skills.
7. Launch a podcast
Podcasting is great for engaging with people who want to learn what you know. All they have to do is select the podcast and listen to it from anywhere.
Whatever you want to start a podcast about should be interesting, not too broad, and able to fit in many episodes. Because you’ll be speaking for lots of hours, having a co-host might help.
This enables you to have conversations and thus a more engaging podcast. Inviting guests that are knowledgeable in your podcast topic is also useful for giving your audience more value.
8. Start a coaching business
Offering coaching services is another great way to turn your skills into a side hustle or business. You simply give someone professional advice on ways to achieve their goals.
Maybe they want to make money using an idea you’ve tried and been successful with. So, you gather what you know and get ready to help them win.
Finding clients isn’t supposed to be stressful. If you have a blog or YouTube channel, you could promote your coaching services there to get more people interested. Another way is to set up social media pages based on the services.
9. Sell a physical product
It could be that you’re skilled in making handmade items. It’s possible to make money from such skills by selling your product online or even at a physical store.
It’s much easier to do it through the Internet. You only need to join an e-commerce marketplace like Etsy as a seller and list your items.
Another option is to set up your own online store. This approach enables you to be in control and avoid hefty seller fees. But you’ll be required to market your products more so that potential buyers know about them.
Note that handmade goods aren’t the only physical products to sell. Other things include books on specific topics and even art if you’re good at that.
Turning Your Skills into a Side Hustle Shouldn’t be Challenging
You now have several ideas on how to monetize your skills. You just need to choose one or two that suit your expertise and start making money from your content, product, or services.
Whatever you pick, being persistent is essential for getting the results you want. Don’t be afraid to invest in your learning to gather more information from successful people.
